Angry members of some of the families of Israeli captives still held in Gaza have harangued Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich over his opposition to a deal being negotiated in Qatar to halt the fighting and bring their relatives home, Al Jazeera reports.

Dozens of members of the hostage families, many carrying photographs of the missing, squeezed into a committee room in the Israeli parliament, accusing Smotrich of abandoning the captives.

“These kidnapped people can be returned,” said Ofir Angrest, whose brother Matan was taken hostage during the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. “The conditions are ripe, it’s time for a deal, the Prime Minister said it. How can you, the Minister of Finance, oppose the return of all these abductees?”